Doflamingo: The Rise And Fall Of A Heavenly Demon
by Shashoom
Summary: The life of Doflamingo through his shaded eyes. His thoughts during the different periods and tribunals that plagued his life.
1. Home Sweet Home

Life is good.

But of course it is, I'm a Celestial Dragon, I'm entitled to a life of luxury and comfort. My ancestors built the world we tread on, without us the world would crumble. We are the epicenter of all activity; our word is final, our actions definite. We are the gods of this world and those who stand against us will be stricken away.

Look at all these slaves bowing before me. 'Why is that one trembling? Is it because she can't contain her joy after laying eyes on a god? Yes, that must be it.'

My feet are tired. No matter, I'll just clap my hands and a slave will come rushing towards me; their only purpose is to serve me – they should feel honored.

The food is always exquisite: a plethora of dishes that originate from all over the world, made from the finest ingredients and presented in the most appetizing of ways. 'Delicious, but I want more! Slave! Get me ice cream!'

'Yes, my Lord.' She sounded apprehensive; I'll have to shoot her for her tone.

Roci doesn't seem to enjoy this luxury as much as I do, then again he spends most of his time with father. Father isn't like the rest of my family, he's always spewing this nonsense about us being humans and not gods. Pfft, what rubbish, of course we're not humans; we are gods. How can he even fathom saying such as a ludicrous thing? It doesn't matter, it's just a senile old man with his insane ramblings.

Lately he's been whispering things to mother, I wonder what they're talking about that needs to be kept a secret from the rest of us. I hope he's not feeding that nonsense to mother as well. Despite being a goddess, mother is weak; such poisonous words could be hazardous for her.

'Hmm, what is with all these bags? Why are our things being packed? I'll have to talk to father.'

It seems father is talking with the rest of the gods. Things seem to be getting quite heated; I should probably leave.

Whatever father has to say is of no importance to me. It'll be forgotten by tomorrow, as for now…

"SLAVE!"

Here she comes.

"Yes, my Lord?"

"Carry me to the kitchen, I feel like getting a snack."

"Yes, my Lord."

Yes, life is good.


	2. The Move

Father and mother just told me that we would be leaving Mariejois in a few days. I don't understand; why would we want to leave our home? It's the kingdom in the clouds. When those mere humans think of heaven this is what crosses their feeble minds. This doesn't have anything to do with father's argument with the other gods, does it? No, we're probably just going on vacation; like going to the zoo. We'll get to see those filthy little humans scurry about like wild animals and laugh at them. That's it, just a vacation.

Our ship is large and sturdy, and we've been sailing for a few days now. 'I wonder what this 'zoo' will be like. We could even get a few souvenirs: maybe I'll find a mermaid or a great big galoot to ride on. Roci and I'll have fun riding it and I'm sure that filthy human will feel privileged to have us gods ride him.'

Roci hasn't left father's side. He's always clung onto him; I hope father's blathering doesn't sway him in any way, he's young and impressionable and just might buy into father's crazy talk.

I've noticed that we weren't accompanied by many slaves; we're usually waited on by a deluge of servants, yet only a handful of them are here now. I've also noticed how some of them have been looking at me: with a small glint in their eyes that suggests some kind of restrained joy; they smirk every time I pass them by, as if they knew something I didn't and they were mocking me for it.

'Where is my gun? I'll show those lowly humans! How dare they look at me in such a way?!'

'No, Doffy, it's just your imagination. They haven't done anything.' My father told me, though I didn't believe him, I just huffed away his comment and went on my way; those peasants weren't worth the time or energy.

After several days of traveling, we were finally here! 'So, this is where we'll be staying for our vacation. It isn't exactly home but it'll do for now.'

"SLAVE, get my – hmm."

'What's this? Why are all the slaves returning to the ship? Why aren't they coming with us? Ah, I get it; father was planning to get rid of them all along and just didn't want me to dirty my hands. We'll get better slaves here.'

This will be a fun little vacation, I'm sure of it!


	3. DON'T YOU KNOW WHO I AM!

Our new home is… adequate, for now. I cannot say that I dislike it, it is a large and beautiful palace and we still have with us much of our wealth. However, I still feel odd; maybe it's standing in the air that these lowly humans breathe, their vile stench is penetrating the air I walk in, it's almost unbearable. I should talk to father about getting that fixed: maybe we can kill all the humans near here and wait for their filthy aroma to dissipate.

I climb my way onto the top of the gold pile. 'What a nice view. But I don't feel like watching the palace walls anymore. I want something to eat.' I slide down on the gold pile. 'It's time we got new slaves; I can't be expected to do such menial work, it'd be much too degrading for someone of my status.'

Father seems to find my request amusing. He mutters something about teaching me something, I just chalk it up as another one of his senile utterances.

I'm growing impatient, it's been 2 whole days now and we still haven't gotten any new slaves. Those petty humans should be crawling towards our doorstep, groveling at our feet, begging us to give their pathetic lives some meaning, begging us to command them. But no, no one has shown up… why?

Father said we'll be heading out to the market today. 'Finally! Maybe father and mother were too busy adjusting to this new house and didn't really have the time to go look for new servants. I'll have to tell father that he should inform me of these things.' I click my tongue in annoyance but pay it no further heed.

This… this can't be right. What are these people doing? They're not bowing! WHY AREN'T THEY BOWING?!

'These maggots! These filthy mongrels! Do they not know that a god is standing before them?! How dare they continue walking and chatting amongst themselves as if their lives actually meant something?! How dare they act as if they were my equals?!'

I reach out to my side but quickly remember that I no longer have my gun; father took it away, saying something about kids shouldn't be carrying guns or other such moronic platitudes. 'Father, where is my gun?!' I yell out to him – does it matter that I shout randomly in the middle of the street? No! I am a god and I can do whatever I want!

These peasants are now staring at me. Yes, remember who's standing before you, you filthy cockroaches.

They're still not bowing. What is this? Are they seriously this stupid? Can they not recognize a deity even when they gaze directly at one? Even these cretins can't be that dull. Maybe they need to be reminded of who they're dealing with…

"DON'T YOU KNOW WHO I AM?!"

"Doffy, no!"

"I AM A CELESTIAL DRAGON!"


	4. Betrayal

Father grabbed me and quickly took me back to the house. He scolded me, telling me that I shouldn't announce such things. I retorted by saying that what I said was the truth and that those humans needed to know their place. My father continued to reprimand me for my actions but I shrugged them off; 'what does he know? He's always been different, always been the black sheep of the family.'

The rest of the day had gone by the same as any other day; it was so boring. Everything was so quiet, no sounds reverberating across the marble halls, no sounds of the night penetrating the window sill; just complete and utter silence. It made me grind my teeth. 'This vacation is terrible. The humans don't bow before me, father won't let me do anything about that, and worst of all, everything is so boring. There's nothing to do – what's that?'

I was sitting on the window sill, lost in my thoughts when a faint orange glow caught my eye. It was far off in the distance but it was steadily growing closer. What is that? I also hear something… yelling…

I rush off to my parents' bedroom. I tell them what I saw. Mother and father reassure me that it's nothing to worry about, however their tone changes when all of us smell smoke.

My father begins to sweat; a look of fear is plastered on my mother's face.

"Doflamingo, wake your brother, now!" my father yells at me. On any other day I would have reprimanded him for talking to me in such a manner, but I understood the urgency in his voice and ran off to get my brother.

After I had woken him, my parents grab both of us and rushed us out the back door. Once outside, I met with a horrifying site. Our vacation home… was up in flames.

"Father… why won't they kneel down?!" I was trembling, my voice held none of its usual charisma. I could see all those humans torching our house. They were screaming about us, hurdling expletives at us. I didn't understand what was going on.

Father and mother grabbed us and we started running. 'I don't understand, why are we running? We're Celestial Dragons, we can just call an Admiral to deal with these heathens. Why are we running?!'

Father and mother took us to some cottage that was situated in the middle of a garbage dump. I could never even fathom the idea of living in such a repugnant place, but here we were. The aroma was so bad that it made me wanted to puke. But my parents were thankful, something about the mist covering us, hiding us from the humans. I asked my father why we had to hide, why we couldn't just call the marines and get them to sort this whole thing out. He ignored me, going into the back room to make a call.

I wasn't going to just have him pay no heed to me. I followed him, my steps nimble so as to not draw any attention. I parted the curtains and peeked inside. I could see my father holding a den den mushi, talking to someone.

What I heard shocked me to my very core. Father was talking to the Celestial Dragons, telling them he had made a mistake in revoking his status as a Celestial Dragon, and he was begging them to at least save the rest of us from this nightmare… but they refused. We had breathed their air… we were now humans.

'Father, what have you done?!'


	5. Love

I don't believe my parents heard what the humans were yelling when they were burning our house – if they did they ignored it… but I heard. They had yelled at us, cursed us for being what we were, for causing them so much pain. "What do you know of pain? Of Hunger? Of Suffering?!" This is what they had bellowed as they torched our home. 'What did we know of such things?'

My family had to reside in this crummy little cottage in the garbage heap, where the smell only accentuated the vile and disgusting features of this pigsty.

Often times I wondered, did mother know of what father had done? If she did then that means she consented to coming along, to drag us down here with him. But if she didn't, then she had been swayed by his poisonous words, that she was as much a victim as Roci and me. I didn't know, but I didn't feel any anger and hate towards her; the rage that was boiling inside me was directed only towards my father and these low life scoundrels.

We were out, Roci and I, mother had grown a bit weak so we decided to scavenge for food. It had been a few days since we had made refuge here, but it was difficult. We were low on supplies, food had been a luxury we had not been granted. 'What's this feeling in my stomach? It's sharp, painful and no matter how hard I press down it won't go away.'

My stomach rumbles loudly; is this what they call "hunger"?

As we rummaged for food, we came across several of those barbarians who wasted no time in attacking us. They wielded large clubs and metal pipes. They kicked us and bashed the weapons against our bodies with such maliciousness; they were blood thirsty. 'What's this feeling? Something wet and warm is running down the side of my face and arm; is this blood? My blood?'

Is this what they call "pain"?

After a while they had grown weary, seeing no reason to continue beating defenseless children. They spat on us and walked away triumphantly. My brother and I laid there for a few minutes, trying to regain our composure. 'What did we do to deserve this? It was because of father's naivety and selfishness that we're here, suffering. Why should we be punished? Roci is still so young; he probably doesn't understand what's going on. And mother, she's already so weak, it must be painful for her to see her children in such pitiful states.'

"Come on, Roci, we need to get food." I gently help my brother up as we continue to hunt for anything that was even remotely edible.

Luck finally smiled down upon us; we had found some leftovers amidst the large trash pile. We had originally planned to grab whatever we could find and take it back to mother but… 'Look at all that food. My stomach hurts so much, eating a bit now won't be so bad.'

Roci and I stuffed as much as we could into our mouths before we heard the sounds of footsteps and inharmonious chattering coming from a few yards behind us. I commanded my brother to grab what he could and run. And so we did.

"Mother!"

Mother looked so fragile; she was coughing loudly.

"Sorry, love, I'm feeling a little…"

I always liked it when she called me 'love', it made me feel warm inside and even in this cold, desolate, and repulsive place it made me feel that warmth. But now, hearing her say it with such difficulty and affliction, it made my heart beat faster, a cold sweat running down the side of my face. 'Mother shouldn't be in such a horrible place; she's far too weak. We need to do something or otherwise…'

"Father, mother is dead!"

Is this... is this what they call "suffering"?


	6. I Will Not Die!

Mother was… dead.

Cold, unmoving, lifeless; my beloved mother now lay before me as a corpse, beside her my brother wailed loudly, uncaring about the unwanted attention he would attract. My father stood beside him, a look of palpable woe and regret visible on his features. I stood behind them, my glasses covering the eyes that held irate emotions. I was, naturally, filled with veritable rage, most of it directed at my father. It was his ineptitude that had led us here, in this trash heap, crouching over mother's dead form; it was his entire fault!

Father didn't want mother's body to simply rot away (it would have been too disgraceful), so he opted to cremate her. His decision wasn't met with any arguments or ripostes; 'she was dead, what did it matter what we did with her body?'

Her funeral had, fortunately, gone off without a hitch. The fire had not attracted any of the heathens, so it was, for the most part, a quiet affair – Roci's cries were present throughout the majority of the ordeal.

I often wondered what drove people to do these things. In hindsight I realize that I, too, had acted quite barbaric when I was a Celestial Dragon – it was funny though, how I had come to grips with the fact that I was now a fallen Celestial Dragon; it didn't faze me as much as I thought it would. The only thing that really protested to such thinking was a peculiar feeling that dawdled amidst the typhoon of emotions that spiraled in my head. It was only a nagging feeling in the back of my mind, a certain voice that admonished me to hold onto my heritage, my bloodline, and to never let it slip away. However, I digress.

I was also cruel, now that I realize, now that I've heard these people shouting at me, telling me of the suffering they had to endure, suffering caused by my 'family'. To us it was second nature, we had the power and the privilege to act as we did, but what drove these people? They were as blood thirsty and savage in their revenge as we had been in our daily 'excursions'. What separated us if we acted so similarly?

We had left the next day – our current safe haven was no longer secure – and plodded our way through the city, avoiding the humans with as much subtlety as was known to us. We moved with expedition, but, sadly (as had been the case the last few days), we had been discovered behind some crates that lay on the farther side of the town square. Immediately we had been attacked by the humans who wielded pitch forks and torches, as if they were out hunting wild beasts.

My father begged and groveled at their feet, imploring them to take his life rather than his children's. However, the crowd was unyielding and my father's pleas went unheard. Humans are not born cruel, they choose to be cruel.

We were tied and gagged (eyes blindfolded), dragged through the streets as the deafening sounds of the onlookers pierced our ears and dulled our senses. My arms were untied and I was hoisted up; the blindfold was never taken off. I whimpered when I realized that I now had been hung precariously outside a window sill (or at least I hoped that's where I currently hung), my arms outstretched; it was as if I had been crucified. To my right I could hear my brother crying loudly, my father still begging.

'Why, why, why, why…' These thoughts ran through my mind, and then another more unnerving thought came mind. 'Please, let me die.'

At this, the voice that had earlier beseeched me to hold onto my real self yelled at me. 'How dare you?! You would give these lowly creatures the satisfaction? You would let them take your life; reduce you to a disgusting carcass? You would want to end up like your mother?! Answer me!'

I was hesitant in my response. 'No.'

'Then don't say such erroneous things! We are superior, we are above them and no matter what, we will live!'

I could hear my brother begging for death, my father still entreating the people to spare them, but I… I wouldn't have that, I wouldn't lower myself down like the rest of my family had; I was still superior and I would not falter!

"You think this will kill me?!" my voice was loud and filled with conviction. It had earned me a moment of silence from this barbaric crowd. "I'll live and I'll kill each and every one of you!"I proclaimed my intentions and the crowd's apprehension was palpable.

'Yes, Doflamingo, now show them your power!' the voice commanded and so I did.

I do not know what happened afterwards but I felt as if a huge wave of power exuded from my body, a power so great that I was bemused by the fact that it resided within me, but I was then reassured by that voice. 'You are a Celestial Dragon, no feat is too small for you.'

Yes, I am Donquixote Doflamingo, a Celestial Dragon and I am superior to all these puny humans; and I will not die!


End file.
